My Mom Wants Pictures

I have recently decided to do away with my smart phone in an attempt to simplify life, get a little distance from the internet, and be more present in my interactions with people to whom I am speaking.  It has been wonderful.  I can't own a smart phone with out constantly playing with it, but I don't miss playing with it at all now that I have a $15 phone from Walmart. 

The draw back to no smart phone is that I am sending a lot less impromptu photos to family.  My mom has noticed.  After harassing me for several days to send more pictures, I am finally remembering tonight.  I just uploaded photos from the past two weeks of my kids playing.  They chronicle a lot of playing in the mud, Lydia's new-found skill of walking, and plain old hang-out time.  So, here you go, Mom.

 (they really like playing behind our living room curtains together)

My Mom Knows Me So Well

I just received in the mail a package of five vintage tops from the 1940s from my mother.  Apparently, an antique shop was going out of business, and she got a steal on the pieces.  I'm so excited!  Now, to figure out how to build outfits around these!Here are a few pictures from the fashion show BJ was forced to endure.

This Weekend's Project

It took me a while, but I finally got to one of the items on my to-do list for Lydia's room: redoing on old bookshelf.  We had an old, ugly, cheap, worn-out bookshelf from BJ's undergrad days that was simply an eye sore.  However, I felt like with a fresh coat of paint and a few embellishment it would make a functional storage and organization unit for a kid's room (personally, I find it silly to put nice, expensive furniture in a kid's room because kids live in kid's rooms.)  So my dad applied some peach paint I had sitting in the garage from a previous renovation and added a clothing rod for hanging Lydia's dresses, and I painted some old picture frames and the rod with paint I had from when I painted Lydia's name for her room.  I then added some ribbon to the edges of the shelf, painted labeling words inside the frames, added ribbon for hanging bows, and, ta-da, we have what amounts to a really cute closet.  I love what it has added to the room, and since I already had most of the supplies on hand, it ended up costing less than ten dollars.  Here are a few shots.

(On this last picture, BJ added hook underneath the "Coats" frame right after I snapped the picture.  We now have two spots to hang her jackets this winter.)

An Afternoon in the Back Yard

This week hasn't been in the 100s (only the 90s), which is what we Okies like to refer to as a cool front.  As a result, the kids, Gus, and I spent this afternoon in the back yard.  Here are some pictures I got of the festivities.

Shepherd started out by simply playing in the mud.

He then progressed to spreading it thickly onto his face.

After finding this uncomfortable, he washed it off by spraying a hose directly into his face.  I question the wisdom of this method.

Lydia spent the afternoon teething on our lawn furniture,...

practicing her newest acquired skill of walking (always tight-rope style with the arms out),...

and strategically placing herself in an air current for that high-fashion-magazine look.

Gus just set around displaying his dorky new haircut.

Apparently, the groomer had never done an Old English Sheepdog, but she did have experience with poodles, hence the poofy head,...

and the puff ball at the end of his tail.

Eventually, Shepherd realized that Lydia wasn't simply a fussy, toy-stealing little baby sister.  She is also another body on which to spread mud.

So they played harmoniously together in the mud.

Lydia sampled a little taste to see what exactly it is her brother is always gorging on.

 And eventually, I managed to get the rarest of gems: A picture of Shepherd looking in my general direction smiling.  Mud just makes him that happy.

BJ's Four Letter Word

The kids and I are currently spending a wonderful week in Menard with my parents.  BJ joined us late Wednesday night.  When the kids woke up Thursday morning, they were pretty excited to find Daddy here.

BJ is not the sort of guy that says "cute" very often.  In fact, before we had children, I had never heard him use the word.  Even after kids, he only says it about once every 3 to 4 months or so.  Thursday morning was one of those times.  Lydia's hair has recently grown just long enough to put in little pigtails. When BJ came down stairs to find his little girl in pigtails, he had to admit, "That is pretty cute."  Yes, it is pretty cute.

She also pulls off a pony tail pretty well.

And more from Shepherd's imagination...

Today, Shepherd informed me of the roles he, Lydia, and I were playing in our morning pretend games:

"Mommy, I'm a momma, you're a Shep-ud, and the baby is a book."

Poor Lydia is an inanimate object.  Priceless.

Definitely a Preacher's Kid

If you know BJ and I, you know that we spend a lot of time discussing church and the Bible and our faith.  Since it is BJ's job, our entire life revolves around those things.  If you know Shepherd, you know he has a pretty active imagination.  With that being said, here is a story told by Shepherd while playing with his big toes:

"This is the mommy (touching one big toe) and this is the daddy (touching the other big toe).  They are talking about Jesus."

Three weeks!

I never go this long without posting!  Of course, part of the reason is that I was away from home.  Unfortunately, when I got home, I got sick with a horrible UTI, and then I had a big fat reaction to the antibiotics I was given to cure the UTI.  It's been a long couple of weeks.

But I'd rather not dwell on that.  So instead, here are some fun pictures from our two weeks with family while BJ was at school.  The last few pictures are from this past weekend when Uncle Bro and Aunt Stephanie came up to lend me a hand with the kids while I was still sick from my medication.